Siemens plans to make biggest single investment in company's history in Berlin

Staff Writer | Wednesday October 31, 2018 6:49AM ET

Europe In the coming years, up to €600 million are to be invested

A commitment to Berlin and Germany: at the time-honored Siemens industrial estate in Berlin's Spandau district, Siemens AG plans to make its biggest single investment ever in the company's history in Berlin.

In the coming years, up to €600 million are to be invested in a new world of working and living: Siemensstadt ("Siemens City") 2.0.

This project, which covers an area of 70 hectares, aims to transform this large industrial area into a modern, urban district of the future for a diverse range of purposes.

A further goal is to strengthen selected key technologies and innovation fields in collaboration with the scientific and business communities. To make this possible, this section of Berlin is to become home to centers of research and expertise, to start-up incubators and to research and scientific institutes as well as their partner companies.

The project is a long-term, future-oriented commitment to Germany as a business location: for our employees, for residents and for the metropolitan area, it is to be a symbol for innovative power and science.

The partners' intention in signing the pact for the future is to strengthen the State of Berlin's position as a home to forward-looking industries and technologies and turn Siemensstadt into one of the company's most important locations in this respect.

As part of this project, Siemens' current property in Spandau is to be developed into a technology park and incubator in the heart of Siemensstadt by the end of 2030.

The existing industrial architecture provides an attractive environment for new work models and an excellent basis for meeting future production requirements. Trailblazing office, research and production spaces are to be created, as well as modern residential concepts.

The concept calls for investments in core competencies in production and service, which will also lead to new job profiles. In cooperation with the Senate of Berlin, Siemens will conduct an urban planning competition as the basis for the project's further development.

As part of the Siemensstadt agreement, a second memorandum of understanding (MoU), for an industrial and scientific campus, was signed with the City of Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM). This MoU sets the course for the first concrete measure, which will address both a dedicated set of core technologies as well as specific fields of application in conventional power plant technology. ■